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Listed: Frightened Rabbit + Double Dagger

Frightened Rabbit

Glasgow's fertile music scene can carve another notch in its skinny white belt. Frightened Rabbit is the latest band from the lowland metropolis to gain noticable acclaim on these shores. A drummer named Scott started the startled mammal all by himself back in 2003, making catchy bedroom recordings on 4-track, as Glaswegians are wont to do. Scott's brother Grant joined the band in 2004 and a boy named Billy necessitated bios to call Frightened Rabbit a trio in 2006. The initially released their debut album, Sing the Greys, on their own label, Hits the Fan. But FatCat really dug it, too, and decided to do the demos justice by giving them the once over and an international market. You'll find it in fine record stores on Oct. 2. For now, check out this live clip from a stop in Brooklyn back in January and four not-too-shabby songs on their MySpace page. Scott took part in this week's Listed.

"Here's the rundown of my 10 favorite songs to dance to (and why)..."

1. The Band - “Rag Mama Rag”Being a guitar player, its always best to avoid playing air guitar when dancing. It really makes you look like a dick, as you and those around you are acutely aware of your attempts to get the chord shapes and fret position correct. So my love of this song stems from the fact that your dance can incorporate the air piano. This involves the act of hammering the air in front of you with outstretched fingers and a stance which suggests you have eschewed the piano stool because you just CAN'T sit down whilst 'playing' this song.

2. N-Trance - “Set You Free”As a dancer, this song has a couple of difficult moments, given that the beat drops out entirely on two occasions, giving way to the slower piano and synth section. Although these moments are incredibly powerful and give singer Kelly Llorrenna's superb voice the chance to take centre stage, it leaves those on the dance floor with little to do but swing their head and arms slowly whilst shuffling back and forth for 30 seconds. I would recommend taking this opportunity to do some smooching or try to catch the eye of someone you would like to smooch. The thunder and rain sound effects in the background will add intensity to your deep stare and you will be impossible to resist.

3. Queens of the Stone Age - “Go With the Flow”At a recent concert, Josh Homme sang 'Everybody knows you dance like you fuck' over end of this song. This being the case, I usually choose to dance along with an exposed penis and a bottle of mouthwash in my hand.

4. Lionel Ritchie - “Dancing on the Ceiling”I once went to see Lionel Ritchie live in concert and was saddened that the show didn't incorporate an actual 'ceiling dance' involving some sort of safety harness. Missed opportunity. That said, the show had many sad points. Not least of all the moment i realized that I had paid £30 to attend a show in an effort to appear amusingly ironic about my taste in music. I was 17 at the time...

5. Shitdisco – “I Know Kung Fu”I once saw these fine chaps supporting The Rapture, and they played so fast and hard that they made the headliners sound like Blondie in comparison. I then went to see them do a show with the Klaxons, who sounded like Fleetwood Mac after Shitdisco's erection riot. They've got one of the best live drummers i've ever seen. Dancey dance!

6. Phoenix - “Too Young”Phoenix was the first band I ever went along to see by myself. I had bought the first record and just really wanted to go to the show, but was struggling to find a companion. I should add that this is 4 years prior to Bill Murray discovering the band in Japan and therefore I shouldn't have been dismayed when no one wished to come to see 'some French band who sound a bit like ELO crossed with Van Halen'. I now go to concerts on my own all the time, but that first time is always a little uncomfortable. After buying two beers at once, constantly checking my watch and looking out for my non-existent friend, I soon came to realize that no one there gave a shit that I was alone. Once Phoenix came on and I began dancing like nobody was watching (because they weren't) I didn't give a shit either.

7. Kasabian - “Club Foot”I hate these cunts, I really do. But as Shakira says, my hips don't lie, and this one gets me going every single time. Bastards.

8. Toots and the Maytals - “Pressure Drop”You can really hear the sweat on all of these old ska records. The footage of the dance halls in The Harder They Come always reminds me of a ceilidh, during which all that sexual charge built up by dancing with your side-beau is covered by the necessary politeness of the dances themselves. Only hands, arms and sometimes the spine and shoulders ever come into contact, but there's the opportunity to display some sparkling wit and have a conversation. Instead of sidling up and simulating sex, boys actually have to ASK a girl to dance. This whole process is lost in today's big daft clubs.

9. The Spinto Band - “Oh Mandy”On our first trip to Ireland as a band, this record was the soundtrack. This one is for dancing like a five year old, with no shoes and your socks hanging 10cm off the end of your foot. I remember one night in Thomastown when we danced to this song by breaking pieces of firewood on each others' heads. Its all about losing a few brain cells, after all.

10. Stevie Wonder - “Superstition”What can i say. First time I heard this was pretty much the first time I danced in a way that didn't involve trying to be funny in front of girls or impersonating East 17. Its an obvious choice but there has really never been anything before or since that jingles my jangle like this tune.

Double Dagger are a post-hardcore trio from Baltimore, Maryland. They have been active since late 2002, and have toured around the United States, garnering a large following in the years since forming. They have opened for a number of high profile acts, including Pere Ubu, The Buzzcocks, and Boyz II Men. They have no guitarist, having a very loud bass guitar fill the space a guitar would take. Their latest record, Rugged Rubble, is out now on Stationary (Heart) Recordings.

1. The New Flesh - Vessel (Heartbreak Beat)Is one really a nihilist if they don't believe in nihilism? Does belief in nothing mean rejection of everything, including the belief in nothing? The New Flesh don't give a fuck. Regardless of what you may have read in reviews for The New Flesh on "hating yourself" and "nihilism" and other things you may generally read in a review for an AmRep band, The New Flesh gives a fuck about nothing but makes music that sounds like arm wrestling a West Baltimore crackhead. After the bar-creep dirges of Parasite, something snapped around the time of the split with Puke Attack. With Vessel The New Flesh started to muscle forward into a distinctive powerhouse without getting boring, "experimental" or predictable. (DB)

2. Enemymine - The Ice In Me (Up Records)This is an album in the classic sense, being a whole greater than the sum of its parts that demands to be listened to from end to end. This is metal that surpasses and defies the expectations of the genre, interspersing heavy-as-shit distortion-drenched tracks with abstract instrumental interludes and loops. "Setting The Traps" epitomizes this record, its quiet beginning filled with underlying aggression that erupts into a cathartic anthem of speaker blistering rage. (NS)

3. Green Day – Dookie (Reprise)Sure, we're wondering what the fuck is up with Billie Joe's eyeliner and all of the un-listenable recent Green Day records, but the awesomeness of Dookie can't be denied. Dookie is a perfect pop album, made all the better by clever and sardonic lyrics about teenage boredom, masturbation, and smoking pot. In retrospect it's hard to understand why people got upset with Green Day for signing to a major label, because this album pretty much rules. (BW)

4. Snacktruck - Harpoon (Perpetual Motion Machine)Snacktruck was one of those bands that truly put me on my ass when seeing them live. This guitar and drums two-piece sounded like the best parts of 90s alternarock completely fucked and modernized. Neon grunge. That's seriously a compliment. Among the legions of two-piece-weird-name bands circa 2003, Snacktruck truly stood out. Live, they were able to achieve what many have only attempted to do—make sonically gnarly, intrusive rock music but still reach a climactic party atmosphere. You don't fuck with the 'truck. (DB)

5. Stars Of The Dogon – Stars Of The Dogon (self-released)These guys were one of the best bands from Baltimore back when few people were paying attention to the music scene here. There were a handful of local bands including Stars Of The Dogon, Charm City Suicides, and Sonna that were making some pretty incredible music six or seven years ago. SOTD sounded like AC/DC getting into a fistfight with with AmphetamineReptile in front of a massive wall of mismatched, partially-working amplifiers. Sadly, Stars Of The Dogon were short-lived, breaking up onstage at a Melt Banana show over a game of paper-rock-scissors. (BW)

6. Midnight Oil – Diesel And Dust (CBS)I was really into this album in middle school, but I'd forgotten about Midnight Oil until we picked up a copy of this tape on tour a few years back. The first song on the B side, "The Dead Heart", is particularly great, built around a droning, minimal bass and kick drum pulse. Midnight Oil's overt leftist politics and environmentalism seem just as relevant, if not more so, 20 years later. (BW)

7. Arab On Radar - Yahweh or The Highway (Skin Graft)While all of their releases are great, the sweating anxiety and perpetual nervous throb of the songs on Yahweh are the ones that remind me most of crowds where the dancing devolved to people writhing on top of each other grinding and groping strangers and friends. When the song ended and the normal world came back, your friends standing at the side seemed embarrassed to know you, but with this band it seemed like the only thing you could do. (NS)

8. Les Savy Fav – Rome (written upside down) (Southern)I first saw Les Savy Fav play in 1999, not knowing what to expect from either their show or their music. Their performance blew me away—it was one of those shows you see that make you want to go start a band. Every couple of months when Les Savy Fav came back through Baltimore, they just kept getting better. When you went to a LSF show, it was always fun, unpredictable, and punk as fuck. Rome (written upside down) came out of this period and is probably band's best overall release with their current lineup (3/5, LSF's first CD is pretty great too). The song lyrics are genius.

9. Chester Stacey - Westminster Life (Atomic Twang)Why is it that the more time you spend with a record, the harder it is to describe? Neil Eber's obviously spent a lot of time with people he needs to get away from (but can't because they're his friends), with feeling listless and lost several years after one is supposed to stop feeling that way, with feeling stuck in a small town, but he's found out how to describe it perfectly. I'm not usually one for alt-country type stuff; I grew up down South, so to me it usually just sounds like indie rock posers, but a few years ago a friend of mine put in a CDR of a band he was recording and I said "woah, it sounds like a country band on SST" to which he responded "You've GOT to hear their cover of 'My War'." And while that cover is not on here, that energy is. The themes may be kinda downers, but Eber's awareness of them, and his insightful way of describing them somehow gives the record a hopeful feeling. "Yeah, I'm kind of in a rut right now, but it's really not that bad I guess, wanna go hang out at the mall?" (NS)

10. Devo - Freedom of Choice (Warner Brothers)Modern technologies have advanced exponentially since 1980; however, the machine precision that these Akron spuds utilized on Freedom of Choice makes it a strong record from beginning to end. Aside from the "80's sound" commonly associated/dismissed with Devo and this record particularly (see: "Whip It"), Freedom of Choice actually proves to be more timely in the 21st century as an accurate social commentary on America: strange uniformity in a rigid, traditional society, awkwardly sex-charged, and propelling into the future. We're all Devo. Or as heard in Baltimore: "Crabs have whips" (DB)